AngelCode.com

Bitmap Font Generator

This program will allow you to generate bitmap fonts from TrueType fonts. The application generates both image files and character descriptions that can be read by a game for easy rendering of fonts.

The program is freeware and open source, but a donation is greatly appreciated.

If you don't have an image viewer capable of reading TGA, PNG, or DDS files, I recommend PUPP, another free product from AngelCode.

Downloads

download 32bit & 64bit executable for v1.14a (1.28MB, 2021/04/08)

download 64bit executable for v1.14b beta (745KB, 2023/04/20)

Features

Documentation

The manual is included with the tool, but for those who wish to take a look at it without installing the tool first it is also available here. The manual describes both how to use the tool and the file format of the generated files.

Source code

The source code is available under the widely known zlib license. The svn repository is hosted at SourceForge.net

Get the code by pointing your svn client at: http://svn.code.sf.net/p/bmfont/code/trunk.

If you want any support with the code, then please visit the forums.

Observation on virus alert

Avira anti-virus has been known to give a virus alert when scanning bmfont.exe or the installer. This is a false positive generated by their heuristic functions that tries to predict and catch unknown viruses. I've already reported this false positive to Avira a few times and each time they recognize it as a false positive, however for some reason the problem comes back months later (presumably when they update the heuristic functions).

If anyone has any idea what I need to change in the code to prevent this false alert I would very much like to know.

Tutorials & Resources

Here are a some links to other resources that provide information or tools that are useful for those interested in bitmap fonts.

The following are some other tools that also generate output in the same format that I came up with for BMFont and that is widely used in the industry today.

Changes

Special thanks to

Work in Progress

Some of the things that will be implemented in future versions: